Many of you may know the book “Who Moved My Cheese”. If you
don’t, the book was about some mice that got very comfortable with
knowing where their daily meal of cheese was located. Someone moved
their cheese and the story evolved around the stress, confusion and
intelligence involved about locating new cheese. This concept can be
applied to your life as a goaltender. Shooters are like mice and the
net is the cheese. If a goaltender is very predictable about how he
or she plays the position, the shooters get lazy because the goalie
is easy to play against. I call this type of goalie a “puck
receptacle” because they hang out and wait for obvious clues that a
shot will be taken and then they scramble to try and stop the puck.
An active goalie would be one that “moves the cheese” from the
shooters on a regular basis. By being creative and active, this type
of goalie creates stress and confusion for the shooter (mouse)
because the goalie is not predictable. Most goalies I see are puck
receptacles. Oh they may look pretty in how they move around in
their perfectly formed butterfly slides and stances, but they lack
purpose. When a goalie doesn’t know the game well enough to make
proper choices with save techniques, positioning and stickwork, the
shooters have easy access to the cheese.

What are
ways to make you an active goalie that hides the cheese from the
offensive players? Here’s a basic laundry list:

*Don’t glide backwards too early in the crease. Play inside/out (step out to your angle before a shooter is
beginning a shot and don’t retreat unless they are within a stick
length away)

*Keep your elbows in and your hands
ahead of your body at a forward diagonal from your nose.
This hides the armpit area and the glove and blocker will keep only
a few inches of the top shelf in a shooter’s sightlines. Very few
shooters can put the puck in a few inch area under pressure. When
the hands are down and 2 feet of top shelf are exposed, an average
shooter can score. When the hands stay ahead of you, the glove and
blocker can meet the puck early in the trajectory when it’s not a
difficult save to make. If the hands are down and you have to try
and get the puck when it’s already behind you, it’s probably going
in….

*Have an active stick.If you can
poke a player who has skated too close to you or you can block a
pass to the slot, do it! Save yourself from making a tougher save
and maybe the shooter will think twice about getting too close to
the crease.

*Protect the short-side of the goal.
If you move to the middle angle before a puck has crossed the
midpoint of your body, the shooter has an easy short-side goal.
Protect the cheese by making the shooter make the move across your
body before you leave the short side. This allows you to move more
easily into the save and it commits the shooter away from the short
side.

*Don’t go down first!Unless the
player is way ahead of you and desperate measure are called for,
learn to outwait the shooter. If they haven’t shot the puck yet,
don’t get nervous and commit because you think you have to do
something. Do something when the shooter commits to a shot, but not
when they are staring you down. It’s a cat and mouse game. The one
who commits first usually loses.

*Don’t be a Cone!
Take gaps away!!If you stand flat-footed deep in the
crease and let the shooters either “grip it or rip it” or walk
around you, paint yourself orange and join the Cone union. You need
to take to take gaps away on opposing shooters. If you make a save
and a rebound gets away from you, shimmy, slide or skate to the
rebound angle before a shooter does. If a player steps out from the
side boards, take a step to the top of the crease to take away the
shooting and passing lanes. If a pass is made to another player,
don’t watch the pass get received before you move, move with the
pass so you are already set on the new angle when the player picks
his or her head up to shoot.

*Know where you are
going and why!You must know left-hand and right-hand
passing and shooting options of the team you are playing against.
The distance you cover with a pass or rebound is totally affected by
the way an opponent passes and shoots. A left hand shooter passing
to a right hand shooter is a long way to go to get to the new angle.
A righty to a lefty is a short distance. You have to get to the
right spot to have a chance at making the save!